India enjoyed a good day at the Australian Open on Saturday as Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna won both their respective doubles and mixed doubles matches to enter the third round.
Sania and Zimbabwean Cara Black and cruised to a 7-5, 6-1 win in the second round against Monica Niculescu of Romania and Klara Zakopalova of the Czech Republic.
Veteran Leander Paes and his Czech partner Radek Stepanek, seeded fifth, recorded a comfortable 6-1, 6-4 win over Italian Daniele Bracciali and Alexandr Dolgopolov from Ukraine to move into the pre-quarterfinals of the men’s doubles event.
The results (involving Indians): Men’s doubles: 5-Leander Paes & Radek Stepanek (Cze) bt Daniele Bracciali (Ita) & Alexandr Dolgopolov (Ukr) 6-1, 6-4; 7-Rohan Bopanna & Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi (Pak) bt Colin Fleming & Ross Hutchins (GBr) 4-6, 6-3, 6-2; Mahesh Bhupathi & Rajeev Ram (USA) lost to 2-Alexander Peya (Aut) & Bruno Soares (Bra) 6-4, 7-6(7).
Women’s doubles: 6-Sania Mirza & Cara Black (Zim) bt Monica Niculescu (Rou) & Klara Zakopalova (Cze) 7-5, 6-1.
Mixed doubles: 6-Sania & Horia Tecau (Rou) bt Hao-Ching Chan (Tpe) & Robert Lindstedt (Swe) 4-6, 7-6(3), 10-8; 2-Katarina Srebotnik (Slo) & Bopanna bt Raquel Kops-Jones (USA) & Treat Huey (Phi) 6-2, 6-3.
Boys: Sumit Nagal lost to Harry Bourchier (Aus) 6-2, 6-3.
Girls: Simran Kaur Sethi lost to 14-Katrine Steffensen (USA) 6-4, 6-2; Snehadevi Reddy lost to Ying Zhang (Chn) 6-4, 6-0.
